from Hacker News

Yurt Calculator

by raptorraver on 5/1/23, 6:18 PM with 88 comments

  • by asimpleusecase on 5/1/23, 8:56 PM

    I lived in Mongolia for a year and got to stay a couple days in real yurts.

    The round wall directs wind around the structure and local people hang a heavy weight from the center of the yurt to give it resistance to the lifting force of the wind.

    They are cool in the summer with the bottom edge of canvas rolled up to allow airflow. ( but also mosquitoes)and warm in the winter when a layer of thick wool felt is layered over the whole structure and covered with canvas. In the centre is a stove that can burn wood or dried animal dung.

    They are very spacious.

    You can tell the time by the sun shadow on the floor via the smoke hole in the centre.

    BTW if you enter a yurt and in Mongolia don’t step on the door still it is rude.

    If you sleep over don’t be shocked when members of the family take off clothes to change. Modesty is the responsibility of the viewer.

  • by extrememacaroni on 5/1/23, 6:53 PM

    Legends say Genghis Khan's horses were trained to be so fast because they were also used to transport bytes to and from such sites, to calculate their yurts.

  • by michaelsmanley on 5/1/23, 6:47 PM

    I'm so glad there are still sites like this.

  • by culi on 5/1/23, 8:43 PM

    From the Wikipedia page:

    > Yurts take between 30 minutes and 3 hours to set up or take down, and are generally used by between five and 15 people.

  • by cypherpunks01 on 5/1/23, 7:09 PM

    See also, Desert Domes for their highly useful Dome Calculators and related dome formulas, material & assembly tips, and other resources for all your geodesic dome needs:

    http://www.desertdomes.com/domecalc.html

  • by meebob on 5/1/23, 8:32 PM

    This website fills me with nostalgia! I used it many years ago to make a tiny 8ft yurt, which was a fun little project. Putting up a yurt is really satisfying- the way the lattice walls flex is very cool, and seeing the way tension works across the structure is fun.

  • by einpoklum on 5/1/23, 7:29 PM

    So, what keeps the Yurt from planar movement? Is it anchored via stakes somehow?

  • by jcadam on 5/1/23, 7:39 PM

    Sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't be better to buy some cheap land and throw up a yurt (or maybe a Quonset hut if you're more fancy), rather than take on a 30-year mortgage.